SAVED AT SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1939, Page 4

SAVED AT SEA

SEAMEN ON TWO RAFTS RESCpiNG SHIP BROUGHT BY BRITISH PLANE. SUCCESS IN DIFFICULT TASK. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, December 8. As a result of the efforts of the crew of a Royal Air Force Coast Command aeroplane, seven sailors who were survivors of an unknown ship have been saved in the North Sea. The aeroplane navigator, when returning from patrol, saw two small objects half a mile distant, which at first he believed were mines. The pilot therefore descended in order to destroy them. He discovered that they were two rafts, tied together and supporting seven men, with wild seas breaking over them. He went' in search of a ship (the plane was a land machine). Ten miles away he sighted the Danish shir Ivar, to which he sent wireless messages. He flashed signals which were not understood. The aeroplane went back to the raft, which, owing to heavy seas, he had difficulty in finding. The wireless operator then attracted the attention of the ship Lyng. At this stage the Ivar, evidently later realising the import of the signals, appeared, but could not find the rafts, so the pilot flew over her bows and directed her until a lifeboat was lowered. and all seven men were rescued. The Lyng, seeing she was no longei’ required, continued her voyage.